Slides for Chapter 12:

Distributed File Systems

From Coulouris, Dollimore, Kindberg and Blair

Distributed Systems:
Concepts and Design
Edition 5, Addison-Wesley 2012
Figure 12.1
Storage systems and their properties

Sharing Persis- Distributed Consistency Example

tence cache/replicas maintenance

Main memory 1 RAM

File system 1 UNIX file system

Distributed file system Sun NFS

Web Web server

Distributed shared memory Ivy (DSM, Ch. 18)

Remote objects (RMI/ORB) 1 CORBA

Persistent object store 1 CORBA Persistent

Object Service
Peer-to-peer storage system 2 OceanStore (Ch. 10)

Types of consistency:
1: strict one-copy. : slightly weaker guarantees. 2: considerably weaker guarantees.

Instructors Guide for Coulouris, Dollimore, Kindberg and Blair, Distributed Systems: Concepts and Design Edn. 5
Pearson Education 2012
Figure 12.2
File system modules

Direc tory module: relates file names to file IDs

File module: relates file IDs to partic ular files

Ac cess control module: c hecks permis sion for operation requested

File acc es s module: reads or w rites file data or attributes

Bloc k module: acc es ses and alloc ates disk blocks

Device module: dis k I/O and buffering

Instructors Guide for Coulouris, Dollimore, Kindberg and Blair, Distributed Systems: Concepts and Design Edn. 5
Pearson Education 2012
Figure 12.3
File attribute record structure

File length
Creation timestamp
Read timestamp
Write timestamp
Attribute timestamp
Reference count
Owner
File type
Access control list

Instructors Guide for Coulouris, Dollimore, Kindberg and Blair, Distributed Systems: Concepts and Design Edn. 5
Pearson Education 2012
Figure 12.4
UNIX file system operations

filedes = open(name, mode) Opens an existing file with the given name.
filedes = creat(name, mode) Creates a new file with the given name.
Both operations deliver a file descriptor referencing the open
file. The mode is read, write or both.
status = close(filedes) Closes the open file filedes.
count = read(filedes, buffer, n) Transfers n bytes from the file referenced by filedes to buffer.
count = write(filedes, buffer, n) Transfers n bytes to the file referenced by filedes from buffer.
Both operations deliver the number of bytes actually transferred
and advance the read-write pointer.
pos = lseek(filedes, offset, Moves the read-write pointer to offset (relative or absolute,
whence) depending on whence).
status = unlink(name) Removes the file name from the directory structure. If the file
has no other names, it is deleted.
status = link(name1, name2) Adds a new name (name2) for a file (name1).
status = stat(name, buffer) Gets the file attributes for file name into buffer.

Instructors Guide for Coulouris, Dollimore, Kindberg and Blair, Distributed Systems: Concepts and Design Edn. 5
Pearson Education 2012
Figure 12.5
File service architecture

Client computer Server computer

Application Application Directory service

program program

Flat file service

Client module

Instructors Guide for Coulouris, Dollimore, Kindberg and Blair, Distributed Systems: Concepts and Design Edn. 5
Pearson Education 2012
Figure 12.6
Flat file service operations

Read(FileId, i, n) -> Data If 1 i Length(File): Reads a sequence of up to n items

throws BadPosition from a file starting at item i and returns it in Data.
Write(FileId, i, Data) If 1 i Length(File)+1: Writes a sequence of Data to a
throws BadPosition file, starting at item i, extending the file if necessary.
Create() -> FileId Creates a new file of length 0 and delivers a UFID for it.
Delete(FileId) Removes the file from the file store.
GetAttributes(FileId) -> Attr Returns the file attributes for the file.
SetAttributes(FileId, Attr) Sets the file attributes (only those attributes that are not
shaded in Figure 12.3).

Instructors Guide for Coulouris, Dollimore, Kindberg and Blair, Distributed Systems: Concepts and Design Edn. 5
Pearson Education 2012
Figure 12.7
Directory service operations

Lookup(Dir, Name) -> FileId Locates the text name in the directory and returns the
throws NotFound relevant UFID. If Name is not in the directory, throws an
exception.
AddName(Dir, Name, FileId) If Name is not in the directory, adds (Name, File) to the
throws NameDuplicate directory and updates the files attribute record.
If Name is already in the directory: throws an exception.
UnName(Dir, Name) If Name is in the directory: the entry containing Name is
throws NotFound removed from the directory.
If Name is not in the directory: throws an exception.
GetNames(Dir, Pattern) -> NameSeq Returns all the text names in the directory that match the
regular expression Pattern.

Instructors Guide for Coulouris, Dollimore, Kindberg and Blair, Distributed Systems: Concepts and Design Edn. 5
Pearson Education 2012
Figure 12.8
NFS architecture

Client computer Server computer

Application Application
program program
UNIX
system calls
UNIX kernel
UNIX kernel Virtual file system Virtual file system
Local Remote
file system

UNIX UNIX
NFS NFS
file file
Other

client server
system system
NFS
protocol

Instructors Guide for Coulouris, Dollimore, Kindberg and Blair, Distributed Systems: Concepts and Design Edn. 5
Pearson Education 2012
Figure 12.9
NFS server operations (simplified) 1

lookup(dirfh, name) -> fh, attr Returns file handle and attributes for the file name in the directory
dirfh.
create(dirfh, name, attr) -> Creates a new file name in directory dirfh with attributes attr and
newfh, attr returns the new file handle and attributes.
remove(dirfh, name) status Removes file name from directory dirfh.
getattr(fh) -> attr Returns file attributes of file fh. (Similar to the UNIX stat system
call.)
setattr(fh, attr) -> attr Sets the attributes (mode, user id, group id, size, access time and
modify time of a file). Setting the size to 0 truncates the file.
read(fh, offset, count) -> attr, data Returns up to count bytes of data from a file starting at offset.
Also returns the latest attributes of the file.
write(fh, offset, count, data) -> attr Writes count bytes of data to a file starting at offset. Returns the
attributes of the file after the write has taken place.
rename(dirfh, name, todirfh, toname) Changes the name of file name in directory dirfh to toname in
-> status directory to todirfh
.
link(newdirfh, newname, dirfh, name) Creates an entry newname in the directory newdirfh which refers to
-> status file name in the directory dirfh.
Continues on next slide ...
Instructors Guide for Coulouris, Dollimore, Kindberg and Blair, Distributed Systems: Concepts and Design Edn. 5
Pearson Education 2012
Figure 12.9
NFS server operations (simplified) 2

symlink(newdirfh, newname, string) Creates an entry newname in the directory newdirfh of type
-> status symbolic link with the value string. The server does not interpret
the string but makes a symbolic link file to hold it.
readlink(fh) -> string Returns the string that is associated with the symbolic link file
identified by fh.
mkdir(dirfh, name, attr) -> Creates a new directory name with attributes attr and returns the
newfh, attr new file handle and attributes.
rmdir(dirfh, name) -> status Removes the empty directory name from the parent directory dirfh.
Fails if the directory is not empty.
readdir(dirfh, cookie, count) -> Returns up to count bytes of directory entries from the directory
entries dirfh. Each entry contains a file name, a file handle, and an opaque
pointer to the next directory entry, called a cookie. The cookie is
used in subsequent readdir calls to start reading from the following
entry. If the value of cookie is 0, reads from the first entry in the
directory.
statfs(fh) -> fsstats Returns file system information (such as block size, number of
free blocks and so on) for the file system containing a file fh.

Instructors Guide for Coulouris, Dollimore, Kindberg and Blair, Distributed Systems: Concepts and Design Edn. 5
Pearson Education 2012
Figure 12.10
Local and remote file systems accessible on an NFS client

Server 1 Client Server 2

(root) (root) (root)

export . .. v munix usr nfs

Remote Remote
people s tudents x s taff users
mount mount

big jon bob . .. jim ann jane joe

Note: The file system mounted at /usr/students in the client is actually the sub-tree located at /export/people in Server 1;
the file system mounted at /usr/staff in the client is actually the sub-tree located at /nfs/users in Server 2.

Instructors Guide for Coulouris, Dollimore, Kindberg and Blair, Distributed Systems: Concepts and Design Edn. 5
Pearson Education 2012
Figure 12.11
Distribution of processes in the Andrew File System

Workstations Servers

Us er Venus
program
Vice
UNIX kernel

UNIX kernel

Us er Venus Netw ork

program
UNIX kernel

Vice

Venus
Us er
program UNIX kernel
UNIX kernel

Instructors Guide for Coulouris, Dollimore, Kindberg and Blair, Distributed Systems: Concepts and Design Edn. 5
Pearson Education 2012
Figure 12.12
File name space seen by clients of AFS

Loc al Shared
/ (root)

tmp bin . . . v munix c mu

bin

Sy mbolic
links

Instructors Guide for Coulouris, Dollimore, Kindberg and Blair, Distributed Systems: Concepts and Design Edn. 5
Pearson Education 2012
Figure 12.13
System call interception in AFS

Workstation

Us er Venus
program
UNIX file Non-loc al file
s ys tem calls operations

UNIX kernel
UNIX file s ys tem

Loc al
dis k

Instructors Guide for Coulouris, Dollimore, Kindberg and Blair, Distributed Systems: Concepts and Design Edn. 5
Pearson Education 2012
Figure 12.14
Implementation of file system calls in AFS

User process UNIX kernel V enus Net V ice

open(F ileName, If F ileNam e refers to a
mode) file in shared file space,
pass t he request t o Check list of fil es in
local cache. If not
Venus. present or there is no
valid callback promise,
send a request for the
file to the Vice server
that is cust odian of t he
volume contai ni ng the Transfer a copy of the
file. file and a callback
promiseto the
workstat ion. L og the
P lace t he copy of t he call back promise.
file in the local file
Open t he local fil e and system, ent er i ts l ocal
ret urn the file name in t he local cache
descriptor to t he li st and return the local
applicati on. name to U NIX.
read(Fil eDescriptor, P erform a normal
B uf fer, length) UN IX read operati on
on the local copy.
write(F ileDescri pt or, P erform a normal
B uf fer, length) UN IX wri te operati on
on the local copy.
close(F ileDescri pt or) Close the local copy
and notify Venus t hat
the fil e has been cl osed. If t he local copy has
been changed, send a
copy to t he Vi ce server Repl ace the fil e
that is the custodian of contents and send a
the fil e. callback to all other
cli ent s holdingcallback
promiseson the file.

Instructors Guide for Coulouris, Dollimore, Kindberg and Blair, Distributed Systems: Concepts and Design Edn. 5
Pearson Education 2012
Figure 12.15
The main components of the Vice service interface

Fetch(fid) -> attr, data Returns the attributes (status) and, optionally, the contents of file
identified by the fid and records a callback promise on it.
Store(fid, attr, data) Updates the attributes and (optionally) the contents of a specified
file.
Create() -> fid Creates a new file and records a callback promise on it.
Remove(fid) Deletes the specified file.
SetLock(fid, mode) Sets a lock on the specified file or directory. The mode of the
lock may be shared or exclusive. Locks that are not removed
expire after 30 minutes.
ReleaseLock(fid) Unlocks the specified file or directory.
RemoveCallback(fid) Informs server that a Venus process has flushed a file from its
cache.
BreakCallback(fid) This call is made by a Vice server to a Venus process. It cancels
the callback promise on the relevant file.

Instructors Guide for Coulouris, Dollimore, Kindberg and Blair, Distributed Systems: Concepts and Design Edn. 5
Pearson Education 2012